I've learned in this process that (possibly thanks to "Grand Designs" and the like) that there is an assumption that if we are self building we must all be rich. Now no doubt some are, but even if they are, they may have worked hard for it - in our case we've worked hard for it and have managed through great skill to also NOT be rich .... and from this there seems to be an attitude from various parasitical bodies of "we can have a slice of that pie" from everyone from planners and their solicitors, your own solicitor, building regs folks, highways, SAPs people, and so on, and on - you really do get the feel that a lot of it is nothing more than sheer money grabbing. Having reached building control stage, I thought we might have seen the last of the pointless money grabbers (I mean other than buying actual REAL things you actually really need, like stone, slates, cement etc rather than just buying someones new Jag for 20 minutes paperwork), but I got a letter this morning from our local council telling us that they want £100 to "register" our address. The wording is interesting as its telling you how wonderful this is for you rather than with the likes of council tax where they just demand it and have the law behind them to do so, which makes it look as if they may not actually have a legal power to demand *money* for this, but tries to convince you they have. Has anyone else dealt with this and maybe understands the legality of the charge? I'm minded to tell them to get stuffed and if they don't want to deliver their council tax bills to my new address because it's not "registered" then that's fine by me. Someone else I know got his house onto the system by sending himself a letter and thereafter the post office knew about his address and it appears on postcode searches. I wondered if all councils practise this rip off or if anyone knows if they are legally entitled to charge us for it.

I'm a bit like the someone else you know.

Although a new build, the site had an address historically (and a postcode) that had fallen off all the modern databases. I was told by Royal Mail that to get this address back on the PAF (so it came up when we ordered things online etc.) we had to go via the county council. To get that to happen we had to have a completed build with a letter box and be registered for council tax.

This was a pain, we wanted stuff delivered to site address way before build was habitable. Out of necessity we just started to use the address. Delivery men found us (postcode took them to the place on the satnav). One day the postman called with a letter asking "was this us?". There was no door or letterbox at the time, but he was just checking the names. When told yes, he said, "oh I'll get the address added then" and asked where on site we would like mail to be deposited. A few weeks later we noticed that online address lookups now found our house name at that postcode.

We are rural, and the postman here are very good going beyond the call of duty to deliver successfully. We also knew what our address was, as we were resurecting an old one, but obviously sometimes the postman can help you around such silly fees.

Try posting yourself a letter, if it works then jobs done.

Interesting to see some councils do it free (after all, we're talking maybe 2 minutes typing it into the database and getting many hundreds of £s from a new council tax address every year - that's a good return). I think I might put their letter to the very back of the "to do" filet and just tell the postman the name of our house (its very rural here too so we know him, in fact he was 2 years above me in school) and just wait and see what transpires. Send a letter to myself and see if that triggers things - I was thinking of putting a U.S style mail box up for now anyway on the site with the house name on it for now. It might seem "only" another £100 but I'm really tired of people leeching off us purely and simply because they think there's money to be had out of self builders. I don't mind paying for real things or a fair charge for things. I bet the council still send me a council tax bill whether I pay them an extra £100 for the "privilege" or not!

I'd want some confidence that FRS and ambulances could find me when I needed them

Isn't that what the £100 squids are for ?

Barney

Harrogate charged us for this registration too. Their leverage was to refuse building regs processing if we did not pay up. As it happens, they just took the money but did nothing at all. Long afterwards I called someone at Post Office or Royal Mail who confirmed they had never had a registration from Harrogate BC but sorted it out for me straight off for free. Harrogate is notorious for extortion and putting up as many barriers to building as they can. Think yourself lucky if you have missed out on wasting thousands on the Curse for Sustainable Homes. That was real parasite gravy train.

Some gogling found....


http://grahambell.info/registering-a-new-property-address-with-royal-mail/


"I would advise that Royal Mail have no responsibility for any official
addressing, this is solely the responsibility of the statutory body – the
Local Authority. Royal Mail take the address details from the Local
Authority and Royal Mail allocate postal locality, post town and postcodes.
Please advise the developer or owner of the buildings to contact their
local council street naming and numbering department as they are the
Statutory Body responsible for officially naming and numbering properties
and thoroughfares and request that they notify Royal Mail Address
Development Team of the registered / new addresses. "